Archived decisions

Contact: Campbell Williams, ext 5661 email: [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 Achieving change across the community on the wide range of issues for which the Environment Department is responsible for influencing or providing services is key to delivery, especially more sustainable consumption of natural resources.

1.2 Mechanisms by which change across the community is achieved are not fully understood, but there is a need to enhance quickly understanding of the methods of achieving change across communities in order to accelerate the work already underway on changing the use of natural resources.

1.3 An opportunity has presented itself to work with a European network of like-minded organisations to learn, share experience and achieve the policy goals more effectively.

2. Background and Proposal

2.1 There are unsustainable consumption patterns across Europe which are the result of a complex interaction of factors, including growing prosperity, rising expectations, lack of understanding and an unwillingness to take individual responsibility for the consequences of certain behaviour and lifestyle choices. As a result the 6th Environmental Action programme has promoted policies and programmes to move towards a more sustainable society.

2.2 European Union (EU) legislation is now being introduced to the UK with national regulations and targets, based on the principles of, and a need to prioritise, sustainability within all policy areas.

2.3 The ChangeLAB Partnership, which includes organisations from regions in each Interreg zone (Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden and the UK), is evidence of the great relevance of sustainable consumption.

2.4 ChangeLAB aims to review relevant experience and develop a range of approaches on changing behaviour, enabling further transfer of good practice. These approaches will be based on a range of methodologies: regulation, financial penalties, information, education, social pressure and enablement through infrastructure, etc. In particular, ChangeLAB will test the use of a combination of such approaches in different local situations and cultural environments. Tangible outputs include a knowledge base of existing best practice, websites, reports, workshops, pilot actions, regional and inter-regional events, guidance and a toolkit wizard for practitioners and policy makers.

2.5 ChangeLAB will address the issue of unsustainable lifestyle trends and growth in consumption, including such growth in: household waste generation; the use of private cars leading to congestion and negative environmental impacts; and consumption of water, energy and other resources. The project in this form is perfect to meet County Council objectives.

3. Overall Objectives

3.1 The overall objective of ChangeLAB is to provide partners, and others engaged in policy making on sustainable development, with guidance on how to influence and change lifestyles, attitudes and behaviour in relation to unsustainable consumption trends; specifically to:

(i) raise awareness of current initiatives designed to change behaviour and promote more sustainable lifestyles, through a web-based Knowledge Base and a web forum. This structured framework for information sharing and dissemination will create opportunities for open dialogue between policymakers, the research community and the public;

(ii) share good practice and existing experience among partners and between sectors; including management of transport, waste, water and energy through a change `laboratory'. This will aid understanding of approaches that are most effective with different stakeholder groups/sectors, promoting cross-fertilisation of ideas and build capacity at partner level;

(iii) develop cooperatively a set of criteria to measure the effectiveness of different methodologies in bringing about quantifiable changes in behaviour, contributing to more evidence-based policymaking at regional, national and EU level on such changes;

(iv) collaborate on pilot actions that test effectiveness and transferability of methodologies developed by partners, and show measurable changes in behaviour among target groups. A further objective of the pilots is to use existing expertise within the partnership to support and mentor partners in addressing their own priority sustainable consumption issues;

(v) engage with a wider stakeholder network through dissemination activities, including workshops and regional and international events; and

(vi) produce practical guidance for local and regional authorities and agencies across the EU, extending ChangeLAB's relevance well beyond the life of the project and ensuring continued support for policy development.

4. Financial and Staff Implications

4.1 The anticipated overall budget for ChangeLAB is 1,533,473 euros.

4.2 It is proposed that the County Council would contribute in the form of existing budgeted staff time, contributing towards working on the project over its three year period from 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2007.

4.3 This contribution of staff time, valued at 85,794 euros from across the Department, would derive funding from the ChangeLAB project, which would pay for travel and accommodation over the three year project period. In addition a £25,000 contribution towards delivering a project on change in Hampshire, as well as all expenses and time spent in networking and learning experience, would be gained from the ChangeLAB partnership.

5. Timescale

5.1 An application has been submitted to the EU by Surrey County Council, with Hampshire County Council as one of the initial partners. If the application is successful, the project is due to start on 1 January 2005. ChangeLAB is a three year project, and if successful in receiving funds would finish on 31 December 2007.

5.2 If the application is successful, the Executive Member would be given a further paper outlining a more detailed programme and would be given the opportunity to input to the development of the pilot project in Hampshire and to identify which sections of the department could be usefully involved in learning from other partners.

Recommendation

That the application to join the ChangeLAB Partnership be approved.

9043/CW